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ASH Daily News for 24 November 2006

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ASH Daily News
 
24 November 2006
 
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HEADLINES
 
Health staff stage protest at hospital smoking ban
 
Announcement of date for England’s smoking ban in the ‘near future’
 
The life of a Business Relationship Manager in the coming ban
 
A bridegroom spends his wedding night behind bars due to smoking
 
Are tobacco companies using Youtube in a marketing plot?
 
FULL TEXT
 
Health staff stage protest at hospital smoking ban
 
Doctors, nurses and other health staff staged a smoke-in protest at a hospital in Dundee yesterday.
 
The staff are apparently furious at a ban on smoking on the hospital premises which came into force yesterday.  Around 50 braved the cold weather and driving rain outside Ninewells Hospital to stage the protest in an area now deemed "out of bounds".
 
A senior doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It is just nonsense. They want us to change our clothes and leave the grounds to have a smoke but it's not practical. We're outside and not doing any harm. Why should we have to walk 10 minutes away?”
 
A non-smoking nurse who joined the protest said: “We have patients coming outside with IV drips and catheter bags. It's not nice to see and it can't be doing any good for their health.”
 
A member of clerical staff added: “No one is complaining about going outside but to ask us to leave the grounds when we only have short breaks is ridiculous.”
 
Source: Daily Record Scotland 24 Nov. 06
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/yaa298
 
 
Announcement of date for England’s smoking ban in the ‘near future’
 
A start-date for the English smoking ban will be announced in the "very near future" a government official said today.
 
Andrew Black, from the Department of Health said yesterday at the Smokefree Liverpool Conference that an announcement could be expected shortly.
 
However health minister Caroline Flint was vague, saying the announcement would be ‘before Christmas’. “It will be an early Christmas present for everybody,” she said.
 
Flint added that the smoking ban would be “undoubtedly the most significant piece of health legislation for the last 50 years”.
 
Source: The Publican 24 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/yhz6cz
 
 
The life of a Business Relationship Manager in the coming ban
 
The Publican outlines some of the challenges for a business relationship manager (BRM). These are people who work for pub companies to give advice from the parent company to the lessees.
 
Colin Hardy who works as BRM for Punch Taverns in South East London, believes the smoking ban is a momentous opportunity for the trade lies but has increased pressure on the lives of BRM. Colin is helping 53 pubs prepare to flourish once the ban starts.
 
He is upbeat about the opportunities the smoking ban represents. “We are focusing on the fact that it’s an option for improvement, not a threat,” he says. “This will lead to a new style of pub and we are trying to get retailers into that mindset.”
 
Colin estimates that £39m will be spent between Punch and its lessees on building development in the run-up to the ban. He says that Jonny and Claire Henfry’s pubs in Peckham encapsulate Punch’s thinking for the ban.
 
He adds that the couple “have shown they are proactive themselves. We want the people who understand time cannot stand still.”
 
Punch Taverns takes a phased approached to bringing in no smoking policies. Colin says: “My ideal situation would be for pubs to be entirely no-smoking before March. I am telling my pubs to start phasing it in. At least create a space that is no smoking now.”
 
Licensee Jonny says that while the appearances of his pubs may be changing, nothing should impact what he offers to his customers. Importantly Colin also talks about tips he gives licensees such as “How are you going to communicate with customers?” Punch are equipping lessees with packs containing beer mats alerting customers to the smoking ban and signs to mark designated smoking areas.
 
Source: The Publican 24 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/yj4s2z
 
 
A bridegroom spends his wedding night behind bars due to smoking
 
A bridegroom spent his wedding night behind bars after breaching the smoking ban at his own reception.
 
Mark Phillips refused to put out his cigarette at a non-smoking golf club, telling staff: “I've paid £2,500 for this place I can do what I like.”
 
The 35-year-old newlywed later had to interrupt his honeymoon to make a court appearance.
 
The Bath Magistrates Court heard that trouble flared at the Farrington Golf and Country Club near Bristol when Phillips lit a cigarette on the dancefloor a barman and then duty manager Rebecca Crosby asked him to put out his cigarette or go outside to smoke.
 
Nick Barr, prosecuting, said the non-smoking rule was made clear when the couple booked the reception.
 
The police were called after Phillips became aggressive towards Ms Crosby and the bridegroom had to be restrained by club staff until officers arrived.  He later told police he could not remember anything of the incident.
 
Defence solicitor Jeff Bannister said Phillips was ashamed of his behaviour, which had been completely out of character.
 
Magistrate Christine Tidmarsh told Phillips: 'It was deplorable behaviour and it turned what should have been a lovely day for everyone into a dreadful fiasco.'
 
Source: The Metro 23 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/yz8m6h
 
 
Are tobacco companies using Youtube in a marketing plot?
 
Marketing blog asks whether the tobacco industry is using Youtube in its latest possible marketing efforts.
 
“An article in the Sydney Morning Herald calls to our attention the proliferation of videos on YouTube that show women smoking.  Now that would not be so weird except for the fact that in many of the videos, that is all they are doing: glamming on the cam while puffing away seductively.
 
Sydney University School of Public Health Professor Simon Chapman viewed many of the 27,000 smoking-related videos on YouTube and while he acknowledges the videos could simply be an innocent social phenomenon, he also wonders whether it is a clandestine effort by tobacco companies to promote smoking's cool quotient.
 
Whether or not any tobacco company is behind this is likely to remain a mystery. A Philip Morris rep neither confirmed or denied involvement in with the video and said the company adheres to local laws and Internet advertising to minors should be banned. YouTube declined to comment for the story.
 
While we find it hard to believe tobacco companies have any involvement in this and there is plenty of not-so-glamorous smoking videos to back up that belief, stranger things have certainly happened regarding this industry's marketing efforts.”
 
Source: The Marketing Blog 24 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/yggaef


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